Tap (1989)

Ex-convict and child prodigy in tap dancing tries to make an artistic comeback, but must resist the lure of his former partners in crime.

Exceptionally conventional drama which has the dubious glory of introducing the concept of taptronics -- electronically enhanced tap dancing to rock music. Anyway, the main dramatic point is insurance fraud, which I think was specifically chosen for being considered by many to be a lesser offense from a moral perspective. This is a film made by a white (Jewish?) man about blacks in situations which would be, from what I gather from news and fiction, not foreign to blacks in America. It doesn't play the race card explicitly, though -- perhaps because it was made by a white, perhaps Jewish, man. And it has an ending which is supposed to be upbeat, but leaves one wondering.

Rating: 34

La La Land (2016)

A guy and a girl leave their respective hometowns for Los Angeles, where they hope to make it as, respectively, a jazz pianist and a film actress. They meet and fall in love, and then their respective projects force them to part ways.

Mediocre post-modern musical, with a banal plot and passable songs. Its few novel ideas are mostly negative and didn't work for me; for instance, actors that can't sing are a feature instead of a bug. The initial dance sequence on the bridge, on the other hand, is interesting, at least as mise-en-scène. In a story which is partly about jazz, it is odd that not one song has the slightest jazzy trace to it. The film is imbued with the ethos of Capitalism, which is an integral part of the U.S., and, through cultural colonialism, most of the rest of the world as well. It doesn't really question this ethos: it is its ideology. And yet, it lacks the energy that could make it contagious.

Rating: 37